Newport the focus ahead of Small Business Saturday
Newport the focus ahead of Small Business Saturday
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It was brilliant to see some of Newport city centre’s many independent businesses gaining national recognition recently.
The team from Small Business Saturday UK were in our city as part of a nationwide tour showcasing some of the country’s 5.4 million small businesses that form the backbone of their local communities and economies.
The tour launched at the start of November and continues in the lead up to this year’s Small Business Saturday on December 6.
Newport was one of 23 towns and cities selected for this year’s tour, supported by BT.
The Small Business Saturday team says that while visiting local small businesses it has been “going behind the scenes and meeting the people running them, to shine a light on their invaluable contribution to local communities and the wider UK economy”.
While in Newport city centre, the tour visited New Pastures Home on Commercial Street, Gallery 57 on Upper Dock Street, Italian bakers Ostuni in Newport Market, The Underground in the Kingsway Centre, and Chupacabra Taxidermy in Newport Arcade.
The five businesses visited are just a small sample of the hundreds of brilliant independent businesses operating in the city centre – all of which deserve a wider audience and more support from consumers.
They are almost always family-run – the five highlighted by Small Business Saturday certainly are – and normally a sole source of income.
Small Business Saturday is now in its 13th year in the UK, having started in the United States in 2010.
As the SBS team states so well on their website: “We believe in the power of small. Small is personal. Small is resilient. Small is at the heart of every neighbourhood.”
The last sentence is the most telling. Small businesses are at the heart of their communities because, for the most part, they come from those communities.
Most people like the convenience of internet or supermarket shopping.
But without small businesses like the many we are fortunate to have in Newport, communities wither and local economies die.
Celebrate what we have and, even if it’s for one day on December 6, go out and support your local small businesses.
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